"Wisdom from the world's great religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life."
– UUA Bylaws
Reading: Part III, Chapters 5 and 6 (pp. 81-116)
For group leaders: Have colored pencils or markers available.
1. Did your reading of Part III lead you to any new insights about Unitarian Universalism?
By yourself: Use your notebook to respond to this question.
With a group: Share comments on a voluntary basis.
2. Forrest Church creates a metaphor of Universalism as the many windows of a cathedral, each coloring the same light in different patterns. If you were to create a cathedral representing your personal religion, what kinds of windows would it have? Which religious traditions or other sources of wisdom particularly inspire you in your ethical and spiritual life?
Imagine yourself designing a rose window expressing all the facets of your faith. Use colored pencils or markers to sketch your design in your notebook.
By yourself: Write in your notebook any explanatory comments you want to make about your rose window design.
With a group: Take time to share and explain your rose window designs. Then consider the following questions as a group, or in small groups if you prefer: Does your congregation draw on a variety of faith traditions, or primarily from Judaism and Christianity? In what ways would you like to see your congregation become more inclusive of other traditions? What do you think blocks Unitarian Universalists from really appreciating and learning from other traditions?
3. In Chapter 6, John Buehrens writes: "The secret to dialogue is passing over and then returning. We pass over into an appreciative attempt to understand the experience and insight of another person or tradition. When we return to ourselves, we are no longer precisely the same person we were before. We are changed by the experience, in some way transformed and enlarged."
As you think back along the path you have come in your religious growth, who are the people with whom you have engaged in dialogue regarding matters of faith, people with whom you spoke face to face — members of your family, schoolteachers, religious leaders, friends?
In your notebook, list as many of these dialogue partners as you can remember. Choose one of these people and write a paragraph in your notebook describing the interaction with that person and how it has affected your thoughts and feelings about religion.
By yourself: Imagine what kind of dialogue you might have with the person you chose if you could speak together today. Close your eyes for a few moments until you are able to visualize the person and enter into his or her presence in your own mind. How would you explain your present religious viewpoint? What do you suppose he or she would say in response? And how would you respond to that? Try writing this dialogue in your notebook, letting it continue as long as it stays alive in your mind.
With a group: Seek out another person with whom you can share the paragraph you have just written. Listen carefully as your partner reads and try to enter into each other's experiences. After both of you have read your paragraphs, talk about the similarities and differences in the experiences you have shared. At the end of your dialogue, write a sentence in your notebook about how the interchange may have transformed or enlarged your feelings and thoughts about religion.
4. Closing (with a group): Regather, and share an appropriate reading.
5. For next session, read Part IV, Chapters 7 and 8 (pp. 119-151). If you're leading a group, remind participants of the reading and photocopy Handouts 3 and 4 for each participant. Arrange to have one or more translations of the Bible on hand.
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